Tag Archives: Andrew Bogut

First Glimpse: Bucks-Timberwolves pre-season live blog, game 1

Tip off is in about ten minutes, and still haven’t seen Stephen Jackson in uniform. Andrew Bogut just got in the FoxNorth camera background and swished a warm-up free throw — right handed — and he’s not wearing a sleeve or a brace on the bad arm.

The pregame hype revolves around Ricky Rubio‘s debut against Brandon Jennings, and Bogut’s health. Rubio isn’t starting – Luke Ridnour does.

Interested to see who takes the Bucks first shot tonight. If this is anything like last year, it will be Drew Gooden, starting again at power forward, shooting at will.

Not this year. Mike Dunleavy drains the Bucks first shot, a three-pointer off a feed from Bogut in the post. Dunleavy’s starting for Jackson.

The starting lineup: Bogut, Gooden, Dunleavy, Delfino and Jennings.

Gooden takes an off-balance post-up fallaway, misses. Bogut still hasn’t shot. 8-4 Bucks. The T-Wolves aren’t getting anything in the paint.

4 minutes in: Kevin Love beats Gooden on a drive and draws a foul. Skiles yanks Gooden and Ersan Ilyasova makes his entrance. 13-7 Bucks.

Tobias Harris in for Delfino at the 6:30 mark. The rookie can get to the rim. First a layup on the break, then a foul drawn on a drive into the lane. Two free throws. 17-10 Bucks.

Bucks need a good look and are trying to get it to Bogut in the post, can’t. 3 second call on Bogues on an Ilyasova drive. 17-15 Bucks.

Rubio and J.J. Barea into the game. Barea somehow grabs an offensive board and Michael Beasley draws a foul on Tobias Harris. 17-16.

Bucks don’t look settled at all on offense. Jennings, Beno Udrih, Harris, Ilyasova and now Brockman in for Bogut. We know the Brockman-as-backup-center didn’t work last year. Yet here we go again.

Larry Sanders anyone?

18-20 T-Wolves. Leuer into the game for Ilyasova, who has two fouls.

Brockman-Leuer-Harris-Udrih-Shaun Livingston. This is a D-League lineup to close the first quarter with BJ Livingston and Beno. Udrih looks shorter in a Bucks uniform for some odd reason. 24-26 T-Wolves, end of quarter.

What have we learned so far? Mike Dunleavy can shoot, and Delfino looks ready to have his best season as a pro. Bogut looks comfortable and healthy but didn’t get touches. The Gooden-Ilyasova playing time problem is still there, same as it was last season. The bench rotations aren’t set, and one wouldn’t expect them to be at this point.

Livingston looks like Jennings’ taller, older brother.

2nd Quarter: Luc Mbah a Moute starts the quarter, immediately grabs an offensive board and lays it in, starting the Bucks on a 12-2 run. Leuer is scoring at will against Anthony Randolph. Moute is all over the court, making plays. The guy hasn’t practiced a day due to visa problems with Cameroon that finally cleared on yesterday.

Bogut’s back in at about 9:00 left. He finally gets his first bucket after grabbing a Moute airball at the rim.

Bogut at the line, 6:28 mark. He’s one for two, a lot of rim.

Skiles calls timeout after the T-wolves bomb away from three to close the gap, then Gooden eats the ball in the post and takes another bad fallaway. 45-40 Bucks.

Kevin Love just drained a three with Bogut in his face. Then another one. Skiles has realized he can’t put Gooden on him, so k-Love is Bogut’s charge. This is clearly a job for Ilyasova or Moute. 46-50 T-Wolves.

Love hits another one from Downtown, where Bogut can’t get to him. Bogut looks annoyed, and answers with a driving lefty hook. Bucks go into timeout after a foul with Skiles looking confused. 48-55 T-wolves.

52-62 at half. Eight threes in the quarter by the T-Wolves. Ilyasova looks glum, but gives Gooden a hand slap on the way to the locker room. Bucks assistant Sidney Moncrief is clearly not happy.

This looks far too much like the beginning of last season for comfort.

Did the Bucks really just give up 62 to the T-Wolves in the half? T-Wolves are 8-11 from 3-point-land.

SECOND HALF: Skiles starts Ilyasova on Love in the second half but Love picks up right where he left off and drains a mid-range jumper. He’s on fire.

Now the refs are getting into it. Ticky-tacky fouls and the T-Wolves are living at the line.

Great basketball play by Ilyasova – to Dunleavy – to Bogut for a dunk. Best passing of the night. 61-68 T-Wolves.

Jennings hits a three from the corner. But the Bucks are having trouble with Mike Beasley. And Love again. 67-77. But Dunleavy’s keeping them close. Another three. 16 for Dunleavy.

Love finally misses. A jumper by BJ, and the Bucks are in a groove with this unit: BJ, Delfino, Dunleavy, Ilyasova and Bogut. It’ll be interesting to see where Skiles goes from here. 79-72 with Bogut at the line. One of two – 79-73 and the Wolves turn it over.

Skiles has stuck with the group for most of the quarter, then subbed Livingston for Delfino, which may signal a Skiles preference in terms of who’s on his bench. He’d normally go to Moute but Ersan has slowed down K-Love and Dunleavy’s filling it up. Bucks had a good rhythm going until a couple of fluke bounces led to second chance hoops for the T-Wolves.

Bogut out after a ticky-tack call guarding Darko. These refs won’t let Bogut d-up on Darko? Really? 87-76 and it’s slipping back to the T-wolves.

92-78 at the end of 3 quarters. The T-Wolves cooled off a bit from Downtown (2-7) but got enough garbage going to hold the Bucks off. There’s not much to what the T-Wolves do but shoot threes and move off of point guard penetration.

Which is to say that BJ and Dunleavy haven’t been good on the perimeter D. This is where the Bucks need Moute and Livingston to help tighten it up. (It’s not happening tonight).

4th Quarter: The D-League unit of Udrih-Livingston-Hobson-Leuer-Brockman is getting smoked. 84-100 T-Wolves but Leuer has 14 against Derrick Williams this time in the matchup of rookies.

Hobson has some nifty moves on the perimeter, dropped a nice pass to Livingston for a dunk. But how different from Chris Douglas-Roberts will he be? He’s bigger but CD-R was pretty smooth on the offensive end. I wonder how these things play out in GM John Hammond’s mind.

Bucks are shanking shots, still with the D-League group. Ooof! Rubio to Derrick Williams for a lob dunk. Williams beat Leuer badly on a back-cut. 86-105.

86-107. Another dunk for Leuer. The rookies Rubio, Williams, Leuer and Hobson are putting on a show. Skiles isn’t entertained but, why not? This one’s over and it’s fun watching Leuer light it up in Bucks green.

117-96 final, a poor night on the defensive perimeter, a second quarter of bad matchups that Skiles would like to have back.

LINK. Just to show that I didn’t make all this up.

Deal!!! NBA players, owners reach tentative agreement

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NBA players and owners came to their senses during ten-hour settlement talks Friday, and will advance a tentative agreement to their respective memberships for approval. No, the lockout’s not over, not yet. But the lawsuits will be withdrawn, the players’ union will reform, and approval of the deal is expected from all parties.

Many reports cite “significant concessions” by the owners. Whether that happened is highly suspect, considering that objective observers at Yahoo Sports, The New York Times and CBS Sports had weeks ago decided that the divisive issues were relatively minor.

The real issue at stake here was respect. NBA commissioner David Stern had made too many ultimatums, issued too many deadlines and given us all the high hat. The players responded by disclaiming interest and filed an anti-trust. This tentative settlement, ten days later, was more of an apology from the NBA than a compromise.

Some of the details as reported HERE and HERE:

The split of Basketball Related Income was set at a “band” of 49-51 percent. This reflects the 50-50 agreement that had been previously reached. One percent will go to the fund for retired players, a nice play by the union and a swell gesture by the owners. Apology accepted.
The “Carmelo Anthony rule” was dropped by the owners. This would have prevented players from exercising their Larry Bird contract extension rights in “extend-and-trade” deals like the one that sent Anthony from the Nuggets to the Knicks last spring. It’s very unclear as to why the owners were trying to stop these deals, which amount to a player limiting his own movement in deals that all parties have to agree to. This was never a sensible bargaining item, and not much of concession. Shrugs all around. The OK City Thunder are still stuck with Kendrick Perkins (also an extend-and-trade deal last season).
Mid-level Exception (MLE) contracts for teams over the salary cap were set at four years. The owners had wanted to alternate four-year and three-year deals, but what was the point? There’s no rule that says a team has to use its MLE at all. Don’t want a player for four years? Don’t sign him. And how was a team limited to three-year deals going to compete with a team that could offer four? More shrugs at the bargaining table.
Sign and trade deals by teams paying luxury tax would be allowed but “limited,” according to reports. Huh? These types of deals occur too rarely to figure out what that means.
Qualifying offers to restricted free agents would be raised. Aha. The Bucks had two restricted free agents, Luc Mbah a Moute and Chris Douglas-Roberts. Because they were 2nd round draft picks, their pay scale was low and the Bucks only had to commit $1 million to retain their rights to the players. That’s pretty low risk, especially for Luc, who’s due to get a raise. The Bucks decided not to retain rights to CDR, despite the low financial commit. Raising the qualifying offer would not necessarily drive salary higher for a player like Luc, whom the Bucks want to keep. But it would make it more difficult for teams to restrict players they have little interest in retaining. Freedom! – but not necessarily for players in high demand.
The owners conceded on when to assess the Mid-Level Exception (MLE). Teams not paying luxury tax will be allowed to use the full $5 million MLE, regardless of whether, on paper, the MLE nudges the team into tax territory. This keeps any number of improving teams in small and big markets from being penalized as though they were repeat tax offenders like the Lakers and Celtics and Spurs, which is what the owners wanted to do. I’ve wondered why Herb Kohl or any small market owner agreed to this and questioned whether this was a clause to level the playing field for the luxury tax payers, contrary to the owners’ rhetoric about “competitive balance.” If the owners actually conceded on this, I can finally stop blogging about it.

“Yessssssssss!!!!!!!!!!” – Andrew Bogut tweeted this morning.

“Does the beard and mullet stay or go?” wondered Jon Brockman.

“Es finalmente todo esto verdad o sigo soñando ???” That was from Carlos Delfino.

Que?

They’re not joking: Nazr Mohammed and Andrew Bogut take aim at the NBA’s lockout-focused Twitter accounts

NBA Playoffs 2011 Notes: Joakim Noah’s defense may have killed the Bulls title hopes — but don’t tell Charles Barkley

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Beginning of the 3rd quarter, Game 5 in Chicago, Bulls with their season on the line down three games to one to the Heat, leading by seven points at halftime. …

On the Heat’s first possession of the second half, as Dwyane Wade stunted toward the lane, Bulls center Joakim Noah, as he has so often this series, sagged deep into the lane to close the gap, this time leaving Chris Bosh all alone at the right elbow. Wade flipped a pass to Bosh, who was already bending his legs to shoot as Noah planted, lunged

… and went sailing past Bosh as Bosh drove to the hoop for an easy layup.

“There wasn’t anything Boozer (Carlos, the nearest available help defender) could do about that,” Marv Albert noted in his play-by-play. And there wasn’t. Three Heat possession later and Bosh had another bucket on a midrange jumper and Noah had committed a foul, and the Heat had cut the lead to five.

Coming into the game, Bosh was averaging 24.5 points per game in the series, including a 30 point Game 1 and a 34 point Game 3. No, despite Noah’s hyper-activity and the lunging-for-the-ball tip and block efforts, the Bulls center had blocked just six shots through four games (his season average) and had a miserable time guarding Bosh, who found Noah an all-too-willing sucker for the pump fake, and all-too eager to leave him to help out on the driving Heat, even when help wasn’t needed.

It wasn’t anything resembling the play of a 2nd-team All-Defensive forward-center, the honor bestowed upon Noah by the NBA coaches in 2011. To compound matters, Noah had shot 29 percent from the field entering Game 4.

Yet few — if any — Heat-Bulls observers (Noah’s biggest fan, Charles Barkley, included) seem to have noticed. “On the court and off, Noah not your typical NBA player,” gushed the Chicago Tribune headline above a long feature on Noah before Game 5.

Yeah, the Tribune story set out to tell the human interest story behind a basketball player fined for a vulgar, homophobic slur toward a fan in Miami. But this story aims to talk about Noah the basketball player, the guy who is not making plays on the court, not with the regularity that his fans seem to think he is.

What gives? Were these games against the Heat an aberration, a tough matchup (Bosh, Wade and Lebron) that belied Noah’s All-Defensive status?

Hardly. Noah’s defense in the Heat series was exemplary of how the Bulls center plays defense, and has played it that way since he entered the league in 2007, the season Scott Skiles was let go by the Bulls. Noah rushes to help, lunges after shot attempts, goes for ball fakes, and, as a result of this activity, tends to leave his man wide open or in weak side rebound position. Generally, he tries to be everywhere at once on the defensive end.

While his style surely reflects Noah’s confidence in his athleticism and relative inexperience, it’s also impossible, often foolish, and is a dangerous way to play Chris Bosh — hey ! It’s not good defense.

We actually have statistical evidence of Noah’s folly. Using a newly developed measure of defensive play, ezPM, when counterpart scoring is taken into account (that seems obvious) Noah’s marginal score for individual defense takes one of the biggest dives in the league.

EZPM is a rather basic yet complex and comprehensive metric extended from box score stats developed by Warriors-centric blogger EvanZ at “The City.” For a full explanation on the “ezPM” metric, CLICK HERE. For the opponent scoring (Defense) calculations and rankings, CLICK HERE.

For the record, the ezPM results verify what the eye is telling the NBA fan: Noah is often playing active but poor defense, and the man he’s guarding reaps the benefits. Despite making about 3.0 defensive plays per game (1.5 blocks, 1.0 steals and taking charges) and playing on the NBA’s top-rated defense, Noah finished well behind the top rated big men in the league (see below), and out of the top 25. The Bulls may have clamped down on opponents as they so often did this season, but their center was too often losing track of his man.

In 2010-11, Joakim Noah was not 2nd-team All-NBA Defensive material. In the end, his poor defense on Bosh — and the absence of any offensive game to speak of — may have cost his team a trip to the NBA Finals.

As the Bulls-Heat series played to its conclusion in the 4th quarter of Game 5, backup center Kurt Thomas was the big man on the floor for the Bulls, helping to build a 12-point lead that Dwyane Wade and Lebron James extinguished down the stretch. Noah remained on the bench the entire 4th quarter.

I wonder if anybody in Chicago (or Charles Barkley) noticed.

More later on ezPM, which was fully implemented for the first time this season. Suffice it to say that there were no surprises about the NBA’s top-ranked big men. Noah posted a 1.702 defensive mark — above the margins but behind the Bucks backups, Larry Sanders (2.792) and Jon Brockman (1.767, and even his own backup, Omer Asik (2.214). For now here’s a snapshot of the ezPM defensive scores Top 5:

1.	Dwight Howard	5.08
2.	Ronnie Brewer		4.98
3	Andrew Bogut		3.403
4	LeBron James		3.326
5	Tim Duncan		3.212

A Tale of Two Centers: Nevermind the DPOY voting, Dwight Howard and Andrew Bogut were the most dominant defenders of 2011

Scott Skiles apologizes for 35-win season … GM Hammond plays injury card

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Asked by Bucks beat writers what his message to fans was with the Bucks disappointing season coming to a close, coach Scott Skiles made an apology:

“I would apologize. Look, I’m responsible for this. I understand that. I would never run from that. It’s my responsibility to get the team to play at the highest level they can play at, and obviously I failed at that. This has been a very difficult season and it’s going to stay with me for a long time. We’re going to try and get better. Do our best to get better. For all of us, that’s not a good feeling.” — Scott Skiles’ season post-script.

Given that the Bucks by the end were just an April Fool’s Day buzzer-beater in Indiana away from the 8th playoff spot in the East, one can say that the coach’s sometimes baffling player personnel decisions are partly responsible for his team not making the playoffs. The Bucks should be preparing for a Round 1 series with the Bulls, and, as I wrote earlier this week, it was a blown, easy opportunity to fuel the rivalry with Derrick Rose, Joakim Noah and Chicago.

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Quote to note, GM John Hammond: “We’re just not playing pro basketball at the moment. We have injuries. Big deal. Every team has injuries. It’s getting to the point where there’s no excuse for the way we played tonight. No excuse whatsoever.” — Andrew Bogut, the Bucks 2011 nominee for Defensive Player of the Year, after one of the Bucks worst performances of the year, an 11-point Saturday night home loss Feb. 5 to coach John Kuester’s mutinous Detroit Pistons.

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Bucks GM John Hammond, in a lengthy interview aired during the final Bucks broadcast, was not in the apologetic mood that the press found Scott Skiles in at seasons end. Hammond was anything but, in fact, as he was feisty in defending his history of winning — “I’ve always won.” And, as expected, Hammond played the injury card.

Bucks players missed 277 total games last season, and, that of course, explains their poor record. But not everything.

The injuries do not explain the Bucks’ Jekyll and Hyde management of them, which varied from pushing players back too soon early on to the opposite approach in the 2nd half. The Bucks didn’t realize Brandon Jennings had a fractured foot until he had played five quarters on it, for example. They then monitored his minutes a bit too much for his (or anybody else’s) liking when he returned.

The injuries do not explain the chemistry lost from last season due to Hammond’s offseason moves.

In particular and most importantly, the injuries do not fully explain the Bucks’ abysmal backcourt play. Nor do the injuries change the fact that Hammond in the offseason cleared from the Bucks 2010 bench every last guard who played behind Jennings or John Salmons.

Salmons and Jennings were healthy at the same time for less than half of the season, and as a result both players struggled mightily to find an offensive groove. Behind them, it took about half a season for the Bucks to realize that Keyon Dooling wasn’t competent to run the point. Beyond Dooling there was the ever-entertaining, yet often-aggravating adventure that is pint-sized veteran Earl Boykins. Other than Earl, the Bucks were forced to sign Garrett Temple to two short term contracts. Shooting guard Chris Douglas-Roberts, acquired from New Jersey in the offseason, had some moments but rode the bench. CD-R doesn’t think he’ll be back next year, no hard feelings.

Gone were Luke Ridnour, Royal Ivey and Jerry Stackhouse in free agency. Gone was Charlie Bell to Golden State in the Corey Maggette deal. Gone was Jodie Meeks to the 76ers last February in a trade for Ivey, center Primoz Brezec and a draft pick (injured Darington Hobson) who the Bucks cut in December.

Gone was any sense of backcourt continuity or bench experience with Skiles’ offensive and defensive demands. This was painfully obvious in December and January while Jennings was sidelined with the foot fracture.

Gone was a spot in the playoffs.

The honest approach for the 2010 NBA Executive of the Year would be to own up — like Skiles did — to his share of the responsibility, but that would run against the grain of Hammond’s past practice with the press (and, by extension, the fan base); and he apparently doesn’t believe it’s in his best interest.

(It seems that I forgot all about Michael Redd, who tried unsuccessfully to mesh with Jennings/Ridnour/Bell last season. The Bucks were 12-18 in the games that Redd played. Redd missed the first 72 games this season, but, sorry about the omission. It does occur to me that Jennings probably thinks his GM is nuts, or, in the very least that he doesn’t care much for cohesion.)

Notes: Sixers shooting guard Meeks will be the lone member of the 2010 Bucks starting for a 2011 playoff team. … Kurt Thomas remains on the Chicago bench but seems to have lost his backup center minutes to (too lazy to look up his first name) Asik. … Guard Ivey is the 10th man on the Thunder bench.

Kicking themselves: Bucks blew a badly needed chance to spark a rivalry with the Bulls

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“… It just feels like failure,” said John Salmons this week as the Bucks prepared for the final game of a season that has, in no uncertain terms, been a failure. For Salmons, in particular, the 2010-11 has been a long struggle to find a shooting groove and consistency within Scott Skiles’ perimeter oriented pick-and-roll offense.

Salmons, like many Bucks, played through injuries, and, though he played 73 games before it was said and done, the Fish was only healthy for half of those, and fewer still with a healthy Brandon Jennings in the backcourt.

But injuries are no excuse. It’s almost unthinkable that this Bucks team is looking up in the standings at the 37-win Indiana Pacers, the only team in the 2011 playoffs to have fired a coach mid-season. (One of these things is not like the others and the Pacers are it.)

A cold 4th quarter shooting here, a bad bench run there, dead-end finishes in Philly Jan. 14 and in Charlotte March 28, a defeat at the buzzer in Cleveland in November, a 6-and-10 record in their own weak division and the Bucks earned the shame of seeing the Pacers play the Bulls in the playoffs, Round One.

Weren’t the Bucks expected to be the Bulls rivals this season?

Indeed they were, and to a certain extent they still are: Centers Andrew Bogut and Joakim Noah, the heart and soul of whatever the current Bucks-Bulls have become, aren’t going anywhere. Brandon Jennings vs. Derrick Rose? We’ll get back to you on that. Scott Skiles, the coach who ran the Baby Bulls in Chicago (2003-2007) will be here for next season, according to Bucks GM John Hammond.

But for now, the failure to grab the low-hanging 8th seed in the East, thereby setting up the first Bucks-Bulls playoff series since 1990, is a painful blow to an NBA franchise in a city that seems to care less and less about its pro basketball team. The Bucks this season needed to give its fans something, anything — and, no, a farewell to Michael Redd doesn’t qualify as “anything.”

Whatever the outcome, a Bucks-Bulls playoff would have been a nice consolation prize in the Bucks battle for NBA relevance. No, it would not have made this season’s Bucks relevant — but a series against the Bucks’ natural rivals down I-94, boasting the certain league MVP, Rose, would have at least helped keep Milwaukee on the NBA map, a place where they’ve not often been since that Bucks-Bulls playoff series 21 years ago.

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By the 1989-90 campaign, the Bucks had traded Terry Cummings for Alvin Robertson and Sidney Moncrief was an Atlanta Hawk. The Ricky Pierce-led Bucks were a mere shadow of the Central Division leading Don Nelson teams. Michael Jordan’s Bulls, in Jordan’s fifth season, had become contenders, though the Bad Boy Pistons in Detroit ruled the East as Larry Bird’s career waned. Patrick Ewing patrolled the paint in New York.

The Bulls won the first round series 3-1, cementing the Del Harris era Bucks teams as playoffs also rans — same as it’s ever been in Bucks-Bulls history. When one franchise is up, the other is down, more often than not due, in part, to the success of the other. This was the story this year as the Bulls not only swept the Bucks 4-0 in the season series but dropped a key late season game to the Pacers in Indiana that helped the Pacers take the inside track in the race for eighth. … Same as it ever was for the Bucks and Bulls.

If the rivalry was ever bitter, it was in the early-to-mid 1970s, when the Lew Alcindor/Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Bucks, realigned to the Western Conference and found ~~Nate Thurmond (guarding Kareem at left)~~ Bob Love, Jerry Sloan, Chet Walker and Norm Van Lier waiting for them in the Midwest Division (Thurmond would come later, in 1974-75).

As rivalries go, however, it was awfully one-sided, the Bulls unwilling patsies and annual runner-ups to the Bucks’ division dominance. They met once in the playoffs, a four game sweep by the Bucks in the 1974 Western Conference Finals. If there was bitterness, it was all Chicago’s. (See notes on the 1974 series from Kevin below).

From then on, the rivalry continued on its see-saw way as the Bucks rebuilt after the Kareem trade and the Sidney and Marques dominated the Central Division of the early 1980s (the firing of Jerry Sloan as Bulls coach part of that history).

In the mid-1980’s, Sidney and Terry Cummings held back the Bulls in Jordan’s early years, the Bucks finally relenting to Moncrief’s bad knees and, of course, to Jordan.

Jordan’s teams dominated the Glenn Robinson-Ray Allen Bucks in the 1990’s, while the Big Three Bucks returned the favor after Jordan left in 1998. The Redd era Bucks were Central Division doormats while Skiles built the Baby Bulls. In 2008 both teams were terrible. Since then, if the Bucks were struggling, the Bulls were on a roll; if Rose had a bad ankle, Andrew Bogut was leading the Bucks into the playoffs.

This season, more of the same. MVP-in-waiting Derrick Rose and his Bulls rocketed to the top of the Eastern Conference while the Bucks were only as good as a one-armed Andrew Bogut and sophomore-slumping Brandon Jennings could make them. Too often, that wasn’t very good. The Bucks won 28, lost 37 in games Bogut played. Yet they had their chances.

And same as it ever was, this rivalry with the Bulls that seems like such a natural for the Bucks, will have to wait another year.

Only this time, the looming NBA lockout may make the wait longer.

Milwaukee Bucks Weekend: Still not taking lesser opponents seriously, despite having become one

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The Bucks came into this season with a certain swagger, a pinache that comes with a brash, electric young point guard who had won in his rookie year, with the return of an All-NBA center, with new additions to an improving, young core, and with high expectations. They expected to power teams out of the gym.

It hasn’t happened very often, partly because the swagger still hadn’t been earned, the All-NBA center was playing with a dead right arm, and there was a game or two, or three or more, despite the mounting losses, in which the Bucks seemed to be taking their “lesser opponents” lightly.

In the heat of a race for the last, ignoble playoff spot in the Eastern Conference, the Bucks on Wednesday night did it again in a dreadful, uninspired and unanticipated 97-90 loss at home to the Sacramento Kings.

After the game, the electrifying, brash, poor-shooting young point guard, Brandon Jennings, looked at the upcoming weekend against the Knicks in New York on Friday and the Bulls in Milwaukee on Saturday, and assured that there would be no energy shortage.

“I think when we play teams that are higher than us, we show up better. Playing against a team like Sacramento is kind of difficult because they have nothing to lose. Those are games you’ve got to come in there mentally tough. When you know you’re playing against the Knicks and Chicago Bulls, you kind of get up for those games.” — LINK HERE to Milwaukee Journal Sentinel story.

The Bucks are 28-42 and three games behind the Pacers, two on the loss side. Yet, as crazy as it sounds, they really don’t take many of their opponents as seriously as they should.

Melo say “RELAX”

The Knicks don’t have to win, and maybe that’s part of the reason why they’ve struggled since the last time they played the Bucks in New York — Carmelo Anthony and Chauncey Billups‘ Feb. 23 debut, a hard fought 114-108 victory for the new Knicks.

Fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth in the East — what’s the difference to the Knicks? They’ve proven no match for the Bulls, Celtics, Heat or Magic, locks for the top four spots. Carmelo apparently realizes this, and wants his teammates to “relax and have fun” during this time of transition.

Making the new chemistry even more challenging for the Knicks — their brutal 18-game March schedule is taking its toll. “Fatigue,” not “fun” was the word of the day after the Knicks lost to Orlando in NY Wednesday.

The Bucks have to win, but still don’t feel an urgency to play well against teams like the Sacramento Kings. It adds an interesting dichotomy to tonight’s Bucks-Knicks game in New York, the fourth and final meeting between the two teams this season.

The Bucks won two of the first three games.

In the Feb. 23 game, Knicks fans were treated to a gutsy, Chauncey Billups classic, as the veteran point guard did all the little things that Jennings didn’t, ran a clinic on how to close quarters, hit his usual quota of clutch shots and controlled the game. Carmelo shot … and shot … and shot … 25 times, making just 10 as the Bucks, led by John Salmons (27 pts) on a rare good shooting night this season, nearly spoiled ‘Melo’s big debut … until Billups (and hot-shooting Toney Douglas) saved the day.

Since that game, the Bucks have been the better team, winning 6 of 13 while the Knicks record is 6-10 and they are losers of four straight. Included in those ten losses are two to the Pacers March 13 and 15 that gave Indiana life in their quest for the playoffs.

It seems that Carmelo’s struggles to mesh with his new teammates and the ball-wheeling Mike D’Antoni system in New York are inexorably linked to the Bucks playoffs hopes. It should also be noted that Carmelo’s last game as a Nugget was played in Milwaukee, a nationally televised slugfest Feb. 16 that ended with the Nuggets on top, 94-87.

The Bucks beat the Knicks in Milwaukee Sunday, 110-95, with Carlos Delfino shooting the lights out (30 pts, 8-11 on threes) and Salmons turning in his second straight efficient scoring night (22 pts).

Indeed, the Bucks are part of New York’s woes of late, just as the Knicks troubles have hurt the Bucks playoff chances.

And, yes, the Bucks need to win tonight’s rematch in New York much more than the Knicks do.

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Michael Redd is not expected to play in New York. He at first said he wanted to play “Friday or Saturday” but before the Kings game coach Scott Skiles said the soonest Redd would be active was Saturday.

“That’s (Saturday) what we’re shooting for now. We’ll see. It’s the same type of situation. When they determine he’s ready to go, we’ll activate him and we’ll see.”

Of course, Skiles said the same thing about big forward Drew Gooden, who was activated before the Kings game but was left sitting on the bench.

Hawks grounded: They’ve “tuned out” coach Larry Drew, according to Atlanta sports columnist

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And we in Bucksland think our team has issues …

The Atlanta Hawks’ self-imposed problems, the ones on display last April in the playoffs against the Bogut-less Bucks — the Hawks’ stand-around style of play, the schizophrenic focus, the haphazard, switch-heavy defense, the lack of size — have not gone away.

As the Hawks basically stood pat this summer (signing free agent Josh Powell? Really?) while firing coach Mike Woodson and hiring Woodson assistant Larry Drew, those problems festered as the Hawks played the softest schedule in the East based on opponent strength. Now they’re growing as the Hawks’ final 22 games include matchup after matchup against the league’s elite.

The Bulls blew out the Hawks in Atlanta Tuesday night, 114-81. Afterward, Atlanta Journal Constitution sports columnist Mark Bradley declared it official: The 40-31 Hawks, still in possession of the #5 playoff seed in the East, the Sixers on their heels, have “tuned out” coach Drew, probably at about the 60-game mark. (Read Bradley article HERE.)

They’ve won 40 games because they still have talent; they’ve lost 15 home games because they don’t care enough to apply that talent when application requires effort. Stop shooting their beloved jump shots? Start guarding somebody? Why bother?

Say it again: Fifteen home losses for a team that boasts two All-Stars, a third player of All-Star caliber and the league’s reigning sixth man of the year. Fifteen home losses, nine of them by double figures. The NBA’s worst team shouldn’t be getting hammered like this at home on such a regular basis, let alone one that has been to the playoffs three years running and will get there again this spring.

The Bulls blowout was reminiscent of the Bucks destruction of Atlanta back in November. Challenge the Hawks, throw a sticky, physical defense in their grills, and they’re liable to quit on the game by halftime.

Since that game, of course, the 28-41 Bucks have had plenty of troubles of their own, but have played well enough in the last 10 games (6-4 with the Sacramento Kings on tap at the BC tonight) to satisfy that they haven’t tuned Scott Skiles out. The ever short-handed Bucks, after pushing the Hawks to seven last April, have split four games with Atlanta this season.

The Bucks know the Hawks well, and picking apart Bradley’s basic description of the Hawks is old hat here at the Jinx: Did the Hawks deserve two all-stars this season? Is Josh Smith’s game really “All-Star caliber?” Isn’t the Joe Johnson-centric offense rather elementary to guard half of the time? Should anyone really be surprised that the Bulls, Heat and Lakers are thumping the Hawks?

But it’s more fun when Hawks fans are doing the picking apart.

The comments beneath the story from Atlanta readers range from, “Why does Josh Smith’s shot selection stink?” … to “our All-Star is playing in New Orleans or New Jersey.” Woe be the Hawks brass who passed on point guards Chris Paul and Deron Williams in the 2005 draft and selected with the #2 pick forward Marvin Williams, just turned 19 years old and with all of one season at North Carolina on his resume.

It’s still a bit shocking that the Bucks, with the #1 overall pick, actually considered taking Williams over Bogut, even for a minute.

Some of the most entertaining comments (from a Bucks perspective) are from the columnist, Bradley. (Who does that under sports blogs at daily newspapers? I’m convinced NBA fans in other cities have more fun than Bucks fans.) Here’s Bradley’s most telling take:

Here’s the problem: Can’t trade Joe because he makes too much; can’t trade Horford because he’s the heart of the team; can’t trade Jamal because he’s going to be a free agent; can’t trade Marvin because who’d want him?

By process of elimination, the only real candidate for a trade is Josh Smith, and he’s one of the most talented players in the league.

Here was the take tonight from TNT’s Chris Webber on “Inside the NBA”:

The Hawks problems “started in training camp” with the same roster that, last season was “small and bad,” Webber said. Coach Drew bears some responsibility for the bad part, but the roster problems were there when he took the job … “We’ve been saying it since last year [in the playoffs] … They don’t have a big man.”

Suffice it to say that the Hawks are in store for a quick exit from the playoffs, probably at the hands of the Magic or the Heat, and will hope to detonate their core this summer and rebuild around Horford. They might even get a big man worth playing and stop listing Horford as a center on the All-Star ballot. Bogut and the Bulls’ Joakim Noah would approve.

And with the Hawks likely desperate for change this off-season, it’s one more reason for Bucks GM John Hammond to exercise more patience with their still-developing young core than they did last summer.

Lockout possibilities aside, does either team really have other realistic choices?

(I’ve always thought the Hawks blew it in the summer of 2009 when they didn’t really get in on the bidding for unrestricted FA Andre Miller, took a pass on Ramon Sessions and resigned Mike Bibby, who translated via trade into Kirk Hinrich , no savior, no. How good would Sessions’ speed and penetration-first game look on the Hawks? Better than what they look like now.

But they’re still missing a big man in a league where the good ones aren’t exactly available for trades, even if the bait is Josh Smith. Sam Dalembert, anyone? Tyson Chandler? Nazr Mohammed? Nenad Krstic? Kurt Thomas? Joel Przybilla? Those are the top unrestricted free agent centers this summer, the brighter side of Kwame Brown and Erick Dampier, et. al. Now that I’m thinking about it, the Bucks could use a center, too, to back up Bogut.)

Final 21: Bogut will start against Wizards

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